Luther Burden III

The manufactured touch king of Missouri heads to the Chicago Bears via the second round of the NFL Draft. The Ben Johnson faith and steam will lead plenty of Fantasy managers to draft Burden in 2025 despite the muddly path to significant targets in his rookie season. Chicago did this last year with Rome Odunze as they tossed him into a crowded target tree, and it didn't work out. Burden faces a similar hurdle with Odunze, D.J. Moore, and possibly Colston Loveland ahead of him in the hierarchy. I also didn't even mention Cole Kmet or D'Andre Swift. Burden enjoyed a ton of schemed and easy looks in college as he wasn't asked to just line up every down and route guys up. It's tough to see Burden finding his way to high-end fantasy relevance in 2025 if everyone stays healthy. Burden's a decent middle/late-round dart throw if injuries strike this depth chart because the path to a strong workload could open up quickly. Across his final two collegiate seasons, Burden ranked 58th and seventh in yards per route run, 79th and 13th in yards after the catch per reception, and first and 15th in missed tackles forced among wideouts (per PFF).

Bears beat reporter Kevin Fishbain said coach Ben Johnson “seemed confident” that Luther Burden would be ready at the start of training camp.

Fantasy Impact

Burden has missed most of the offseason program for Chicago due to a soft tissue injury. He remains unsigned from his rookie contract. He figures to be competing for the Beard No. 3 wide receiver role in training camp.